Fall Team Building Activities for Work — 10 Virtual Event Ideas and Budget Friendly Alternatives!
In just this year alone, the number of businesses and organizations planning virtual events has doubled. With the huge spike remote work, most people report that virtual event planning helps keep teams connected and engaged.
However, one study found that many event organizers are struggling with the fact that many people are getting bored with the same types of standard events and virtual calls. Keeping team building activities for work fun, engaging, and focused on team building is the key to finding virtual event ideas that are enjoyable and valuable for everyone. One way to mix things up is by offering seasonal events so you’re not repeating any evergreen ones any time soon.
With that in mind, we’ve compiled a new list of fall team building activities & events to celebrate the season with your team. Here are 10 memorable & fun fall team building activities for work! We’ve also included budget friendly alternatives!
1. pumpkin-themed workshop
From pumpkin spice to pumpkin pie to pumpkin carving, this gourd has come to symbolize autumn as a whole.
Pumpkins open up many options for fall team building activities. One option is a good old fashioned pumpkin carving or decorating competition. Supply your team with pumpkins and a few decorative supplies and let their imaginations run wild.
Your team will watch as each other’s unique creations come to life. At the end, each person can present their pumpkin to the group and you’ll all vote on whose pumpkin is the winner. Try using different superlatives (Best Carving, Best Decoration, Most Creative, Funniest, etc) so everyone gets a bit of recognition.
Get a bit creative by hosting a different type of pumpkin decorating with a pumpkin succulent centerpiece workshop. During this fall team building workshop, your team will create a gorgeous pumpkin centerpiece filled with vibrant live succulents, moss, and, of course, real pumpkins. The host guides attendees on how to construct and care for their unique centerpiece to last throughout the autumn season.
Budget friendly alternative: Instead of paying for shipping a pumpkin, get everyone to pick their own pumpkin.
2. seasonal cooking
One of the best parts about the fall is all of the hearty and delicious foods that define the season. Butternut squash soups, beef stew, apple crisp, pumpkin pie, sweet potato gnocchi, casseroles… the list goes on!
Take a poll or a survey to find out what types of foods your team would be interested in learning to cook. Then, find a virtual cooking class that will walk your team through the prep, cooking, and, of course, eating the delicious meal together at the end!
Budget friendly alternative: Send a voucher to a grocery delivery service along with a personalized or branded recipe card!
3. thanksgiving centerpiece workshop
Centerpieces make any table feel elegant and complete for everything from hosting Thanksgiving to just sitting down for a nice meal with the family.
The Thanksgiving Centerpiece Workshop mentioned earlier would be a perfect option for a unique yet distinctly autumnal centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table. This event sends a kit of fresh cut evergreen branches and boughs (think Magnolia, Eucalyptus, Pine, and all the smells of fresh Winter) along with decorative materials. Host guides attendees through the techniques of creating and styling a beautiful table set.
4. virtual day of service for the community
Fall represents prosperity and abundance thanks to plentiful harvest seasons. Fall is also all about being thankful for what you have and coming together with friends and family to celebrate the final days before the cold winter. Generously spread that prosperity to your community with a virtual day of service. This can be done in a few different ways.
One way is to find charities or service events for each of your team members. Then, on the same day, everyone goes out in their community to offer service, to volunteer, or donate time and/or goods. Come back after your day of service to discuss what you did and how you each contributed to the community.
Another option is to work with organizations that are offering Virtual Day of Service Events. For example, some virtual event companies will ship your team components of care packages that the team can then work to assemble for those in need. Others will send kits to make quilts, blankets, hats, and scarves to help people stay warm as the temperatures begin to drop.
Everyone will work together on a video conference call to construct or make whatever is in the kit and then you can all send them off to people in need.
5. oktoberfest-inspired beer tasting
Oktoberfest is a traditional German two-week celebration & festival that began in the early 1800s. This celebration & festival mostly involves eating traditional German foods and, of course, a lot of beer drinking & tasting.
Have your own mini-Oktoberfest with the team with a beer tasting virtual event! These events can teach your team about the art of brewing, beer tasting, and the history of a tradition that turned into a whole beer style of its own.
6. wine tasting & pairing class
Like the beer of Oktoberfest, many types of wine are synonymous with the autumnal season. Continue the 21+ fall team building events with a wine pairing class. The wines you taste can be hand-picked to suit the season with reds & mulled wines really representing the season.
You can even combine the tasting aspect with some instructions on how to pair wines with certain dishes. This is perfect for preparing for Thanksgiving and other upcoming family dinners as the holidays approach.
7. fall-inspired painting class
One of the best parts of the fall is the beautiful scenery and fall foliage. Allow your team’s creative side to shine through by offering a fall-inspired painting class creating an image of fall scenery, gorgeous autumnal landscapes, and more.
Watercolor painting is a great way to get all of the beautiful colors and shades of the season. Watercolor painting workshops are a great option since they can be easily adjusted to suit the needs & wants of the season!
8. apple cider doughnuts workshop
Sweet cinnamon-sugar, combined with fall’s most famous fruit (apples, of course), make for one of the most delicious seasonal desserts of all time — apple cider doughnuts. Treat your team (no pun intended) to a workshop that’s equally as fun as it is delicious with a make-your-own apple cider doughnut workshop.
This option is perfect for participants of all ages. Have your team invite their family & their little ones for an event that will make sweet memories for everyone!
9. leaf collage making workshop
Fall team building can be as simple as using the beautiful nature that’s around you, and is another event that is perfect for families. Everyone gathers up some leaves native to their area that they find on the ground, in their year, or on their favorite tree.
Then, you can all come together to create collages from these beautiful autumnal leaves. You can also have collage kits sent to your team if they don’t have fallen leaves in their area.
Working directly with nature like this has so many amazing benefits for mental and physical health (learn more about the benefits of interior plantscapes here). These types of arts & crafts virtual events are a great way to incorporate your team’s families and children into your virtual event offerings as well.
Check out some examples of amazing leaf art here.
10. latte art workshop
Not much is better than a warm latte on a brisk fall day. And, of course, the infamous pumpkin spice latte has become an autumn staple for many.
Most great businesses run on coffee, so give your team something they’ll use and love with a latte art workshop. Your team will learn how to create latte art right at home from a professional barista to make fall drinks all year long!
help your fall team building ideas for work run smoothly — work with the pros
We hope that some of these fall team building ideas for work brought some inspiration to your virtual event planning process. Planning seasonal events like these are a great way to help keep employees engaged, happy, and mindful of the wonderful world around them.
If you need help planning, hosting, and running a virtual event, Garden Streets can help. We have ample experience organizing and hosting nature-inspired events that will have your team engaged and inspired.
Working with a professional virtual event company like ours helps make your events smooth, seamless, and memorable for everyone involved!
Learn more about our virtual event process here and contact us here to get started planning your next event.
FAQ
What are the four main types of team-building activities?
Team building activities generally fall into the following four main categories:
- Team Social – these are activities that usually center around food & bev where the structure is quite loose and casual. Think of your typical Happy Hour and this is it. Planning socials are generally quite straightforward.
- Team Outing – these usually include an activity that involves specialized equipment, location or setting. For example, bowling, baseball games, movie screening, Go-Kart racing or ski trips. Organizing these events vary in complexity depending on how far you have to travel and the amount of prep needed by each individual to participate.
- Skill Building – these activities generally involve problem solving or working together to achieve a common goal. Examples include communication workshops, escape rooms, bridge or tower building competitions.
- Interest-based Experiences – these activities are based on interest expressed by the employee base and can range from personal interests like making succulent terrariums, to seasonal interests like wreath-making during the holiday season. Organizing successful interest-based experiences takes thoughtful planning, employee surveys and finding subject matter experts to facilitate the experience. Garden Streets specializes in interest-based activities and offers 5-star experiences in categories such as food & bev, arts & crafts, seasonal & holiday and more. Booking is easy. Just give us a shout via our Contact Us form and we’ll be in touch shortly.
What are good team bonding ideas?
Team bonding is all about sharing common experiences. There are so many things teams can do together, but the best types for bonding are ones that are inclusive, meaningful, fun and ideally have something that’s physical, via physical activities or making something with hands.
All Garden Streets events are designed with these characteristics in mind. Many teams report that their employees continue to talk about and share what they made during the event, long after the event date!
Here are some of our top recommendations:
- Succulent terrarium building
- Watercolor painting
- Modular origami (or Dollar Bill Origami)
- Make-your-own wreath
- Gingerbread house decorating
- Birdhouse making
- Collaborative mural painting
- Bonsai tree 101
- Houseplants 101
- Laughter yoga with a drag queen
Talk to our team for personalized recommendations for your team!
What are 7 team building strategies?
We have been working with hundreds of companies on team building and would summarize our recommended strategy to the following 7 steps:
- Discovery. This step is all about understanding where the team needs. Is it a cohort of new employees who need to meet others? Is it a team that has recently faced some challenges and needs to regroup?
- Ideation. This step is to ideate ways to address the needs of the team. This may take the form of surveys and / or brainstorming sessions. The goal here is to involve everyone in the acknowledgement that team building is needed and to get their thoughts on how they’d like to do it.
- Exploration. This step is about taking the ideas and exploring the solutions. For example, if the team is looking to get to know each other better (discovery) and is interested in doing some fun activities together (ideation), this step of exploration is all about finding potential activities and vendors.
- Commitment. This step is to commit to doing something, let it be a single event, or “we will do monthly events for a year”. Taking such a step also involves commitment in resources (budget and time).
- Planning. Now it’s down to planning the schedule for events and teams, talking to vendors to get availability and pricing, etc. Depending on the level of commitment, this may mean multiple events, multiple vendors and requires dedicated personnel to manage.
- Implementation. This step is for booking events, coordinating calendar invites, venues, shipping (for remote team members to get materials) and actually putting the ‘show’ on!
- Evaluation. This step is about doing post-event surveys so you know how it went and what can be done differently. The data from this step becomes input during the next discovery phase and completes the loop for building amazing teams.
Garden Streets can help with all of the above! Contact us!
What is an example of team building?
Team building is when people get together, do something and get to know each other better. The goal is for everyone to enjoy each other’s company in a non-work setting so the good will will translate into the workplace. There is a saying that “To know someone is to love someone”. In the professional setting, it translates to “people work better together when they know and trust each other”.
Some of our favorite team building events include:
- Icebreakers – Two Truths and a Lie
- Potluck – great way to try out each other’s favorite foods and culinary traditions
- Garden together – getting your hands dirty together and back to the roots is a great way to create and build something (a garden) that’s fulfilling. Garden Streets specializes in gardening and nature events with kits for herb gardens, wreath making, succulent terrariums and more.
- Laugh together – Do a Laughter Yoga and enjoy each other’s laughter. It is indeed the best medicine and can boost moods for multiple days!
- Paint together – Be collaborative and make a piece of art together that can be displayed in the lobby or other white walls around the office. This is not only a great team-building event, but also a great way to celebrate team achievements and activate the company brand.
- Walk together – Doing walking challenges is a great way to build healthy habits while spending time together in small groups. Walking relaxes the mind and is easily accessible to employees, wherever they are.
- Celebrate together – Holiday or seasonal themed events are excellent for getting people together around a common topic. Ask each other their favorite Halloween costumes, favorite candy, or New Year’s traditions.
How do I make Friday fun at work?
The end of the week is a special time. People are generally in a good mood looking forward to a weekend of relaxation. Perhaps they feel proud of all that they’ve accomplished during the week. It’s a great time to bring the team together.
Here are some of our favorites:
- Share “Rose, Thorn and Bud” with each other. Rose is something that went well during the week. Thorn is something that didn’t go as well. Bud is something that you’re looking forward to.
- Catered lunch or go out for a team lunch at a local restaurant. Free food is always welcome! Take it up a notch and add some treats and fun activities like Cookie Decorating.
- Send a surprise gift. This could be something as small as a pack of cookies or cash to spend on a movie during the weekend, or something more substantial like a surprise kit to make something together as a team.
- Do a fun activity together with a wellness and hands-on aspect. Activities like watercolor painting, laughter yoga or making a succulent terrarium are very enjoyable to do together and provides fond memories going into the weekend and beyond!
- Run a raffle based on things that people do during the week, such as recycling or turning lights off in the office to save energy.
- Do a fun office-themed trivia game.
- Have a board game ‘night’ where groups get together to play board games.
- Have a ping pong tournament. Ping pong is a fast sport and can be played during the week, with the finalists getting together for a ‘showdown’ on Friday.
- Team outing such as baseball game or movie screening.
